Selected Projects from Portfolio

About

A unique Architectural Design Studio for the practicing of making ideas realizable as space-place-habitat. I strive, seek, and search to find affordable, fully accessible, and understandable building solutions for anyone to use and continue to live well. These designs, on occasion, become more than just buildings. Occasionally, they cross the membrane of our experience to be Architecture. Saying a building is Architecture, is like saying "I love you." Is saying it enough?

When all is said and done, when all of the water has passed beneath the bridge of experience, and as the journey approaches the crossing again and again, doing the work or problem-solving is half the effort of an Architect. Meeting the expectations of the client, program, and budget is the other 25%. The remaining quarter is expressionism. Not the minimalist art movement of the 1900's, but rather what comes from the effort? What cues, what memories, what emotions if you will, set our sense of place, to be in order with our expectations of it? Did the place satisfy US?

As to my purpose, you can call it freelance, self-employed, looking-for-employment, most-of-the-time part-time, or a life-JOB ... it is real. It is not for the lonely, the timid, or the weary. Its commitment entails envisioning, drawing, and building 'places with space' for those who wish to live and be well. It seems that "existing well" is a choice. And if we venture towards setting the stage for this existence to take root, by use of three famous edicts of Mass; Surface; and the PLAN; and still further we water it by use of order, compass, and regulating line ... we make the prospect easier and more purposeful. An architecture if it is done carefully, as in much of my work (remember I said above, not all we do crosses the membrane to Architecture), can make the difference between a space that can uplift the spirit or lower our sometimes anxious mood, to a precious calm. Is it an accident that the White House is "white?" Or that a Movie Theater or Radio City Music Hall includes stagecraft sets, reds, and flashing lights? Would you enter a large glass box, that was not clear, by the advertising what it was?

Good Architecture, space that has within it thought and purposeful connections, can provide that place, as a membrane or skin to contain or bring forth the memories that mark our existence well and to which we might mention to a friend in passing, go see this place. Sometimes, it is not important to have your name on the marquee or the footnotes, just to know that people notice your "moves in time and space."

I think Le Corbusier was more towards the better in saying: 'You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say: "This is beautiful." That is Architecture. Art enters in.'

And I would add, if I may be so bold, "for the purpose of existing and making us safe, connected, and well."

In Him, by US, and through Supreme Confidence, be safe, stay connected, and strive to live well.

Love, Jeff

PS - Yes you are loved! It does not ever have to be said, and it should never be required to be so, though it must be expressed in some fashion. It is human to love, express, and receive grace, as objects, projects, or kind manifestations! This could be a poem, a tree house, a kid's bathroom (unlike few others), a grassy-paver driveway (absolutely like no other), or a restaurant-noire you build, named, and designed for a best friend on a shoe-string budget (it is little consequence if that friend is now an ex-wife). Creations and the "vows" are not ours to control alone, but the problem-solving is often left to one of US, and to whom has the talent and belief that what maters most, is not how much we build, or how much money we make or expend to achieve, but the little things we call "important" or love. The little things of human importance we have as a result of this love!

Elsewhere:

Employment

An Architectural & Interiors Design StudioRole: Business Development – Architecture/Interiors – Engineering – Builder – AccountingAn office to research and explore historical meaning, context, materials, and building form, all the while, incorporating the client’s needs, budget, and an integrated engineering known to effect better places with interesting space.

… firmly on its way to being the third reliever airport for Chicago O’Hara, Gary-Chicago Airport, is expanding again. ID3A-Techne Kraft has completed the architectural and engineering design services for several projects over the last 10-years, including the $9,000,000 design-built Maintenance Hangar (now leased by Boeing), and the $1.6 million Administration Office and Snow Removal Equipment additions to the existing SRE building. In 2011 and 2012, I worked on the design for a new $1.3 million electrical vault.

… Emery Worldwide (no longer in air freight) existing heavy freight-sorting hub at Dayton International encompassed 500,000sf originally. The first phase expansion created a facility that would increase the internal sort area by 200,000sf with additional conveyor systems and incorporate a new structure to house truck docks, support offices, and food service areas in an addition of 250,000 sf. Proposed in phases and according to an $80 million master plan I helped prepare, the first phase was completed.

… finished in the spring of 2007, Freeman Field’s New GA Terminal is more than an administration center, a public meeting space, and a way-station for passengers and pilots. Its imagery pays tribute to the historic past of this airport, which was an advanced pilot training station during WWII. With a tight budget of $731,000, and though the restaurant space was not completed, this facility is probably one of my favorite accomplishments in idea, purpose, and execution.